The social atmosphere in England at the end of the eighteenth century abounded with visions of new heavens and new earths propagated by political and religious writers. To some, the French Revolution was incontrovertible evidence that the Day of Judgement was near, and that the end of the century would coincide with the end of time. To others, elaborate mathematical calculations produced the same conclusion. Many writers became self-proclaimed prophets who depicted new revelation of the future in detail, and their audience became a culture of anticipation who eagerly awaited the fruition of prophecy and the descent of the New Jerusalem. William Blake was at once related and opposed to this Literature of Anticipation. The collection of illuminated texts known as his "Bible of Hell" adopts the familiar form of prophecy, but acerbically criticizes the action---or inaction---of Blake's contemporaries, and seriously questions the foundation of Christian theology and the beneficence of the Christian God. What emerges from Blake's Bible is a concept of prophecy that stresses an immediacy of vision in sharp contrast with the fruitless waiting of millennialist prophets, and an internal locus of responsibility that dissolves all ties to tyrannical authority.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33313 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Roxborough, David. |
| Contributors | Treadwell, James (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001778488, proquestno: MQ70621, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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